The so-called CLOUD Act would hand police departments in the U.S. and other countries new powers to directly collect data from tech companies instead of requiring them to first get a warrant. It would even let foreign governments wiretap inside the U.S. without having to comply with U.S. Wiretap Act restrictions.

Major tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Oath are supporting the bill because it makes their lives easier by relinquishing their responsibility to protect their users’ data from cops. And they’ve been throwing their lobby power behind getting the CLOUD Act attached to the omnibus government spending bill.

Read more about the CLOUD Act from EFF here and here, and the ACLU here and here.

There's certainly MANY other bad things in this omnibus package. But don't lose sight of this one. Passing the CLOUD Act would impact all of our privacy and would have serious implications.

If the police want to search the contents of the desk in my office, they need a warrant. But if they want to search the contents of my email or phone, that's fine. Everyone knows this is wrong but no one seems to care.